Location and money ongoing challenges for alternative shelter in Chico

A person rests on the ground at Children's Playground in this Dec. 27, 2013 photo. Groups that are working to find an opportunity for an alternative shelter continue facing the same issues: location and funding.(Jason Halley/Staff File Photo)

The familiar phrase for homes and businesses rings true for another entity entirely — alternative shelters that provide overnight housing for homeless people who do not meet requirements of or feel comfortable in standard shelter settings.

Several groups have been working in the last year to find an opportunity for such a shelter in Chico but continue facing the same two interlinked problems: funding and location.

"Those are always the two biggest issues," said Sherry Morgado, chief operations officer at the Community Action Agency.

Ideally, a location has easy access for people to use it but also is sensitive to concerns of neighbors, whether residential or commercial. Options include renting, buying or building locations.

Shelter organizers also have to identify how to pay for the site, utilities and staff. During a rough estimate for the most bare-bones shelter possible — just sleeping mats, coffee and a bathroom in a warehouse — the cost was $60,000 a year, Morgado said.

"There just are not a lot of operational dollars out there," said housing consultant Debbie Villasenor. "Raising money through private donations would probably be critical."

A subcommittee of the Greater Chico Homeless Task Force has talked to alternative shelters in other locations, including Portland, Seattle and Dublin, Ireland, said group chair Jennifer Haffner. Contra Costa County's program is particularly interesting, but it gets county funding and uses county buildings — the kind of collaboration she is hopeful for but not counting on.

"I feel like you need some bigger buy-in," she said.

Marie Demers, housing manager for the city of Chico, said it's unlikely the city could provide funding but the North Valley Housing Trust it is helping establish may be a flexible source of some future funds.

All three women said they would love if someone with an empty building would step forward, even on a temporary basis. An alternative shelter also requires a nonprofit to lead the project.

"It's a societal and community issue, so it means we need the whole community to come together to help us find solutions. We all have a role to play," Morgado said.

What is alternative?

The idea behind an alternative shelter is "housing first," and that by getting people into shelter, one can then begin breaking down barriers and addressing roots of the homelessness. Services are available but not required.

"It's the idea of getting them in the door, making that first connection, that entry point," Haffner said.

Those likely to utilize the shelter are heavily addicted or severely mentally ill. They are used to living in crisis or survival mode, so it can take a long pattern of feeling safe before they let their guard down to accept services, Morgado said.

"We are not talking about setting up a facility that is lawless," Haffner said. "People wouldn't be able to actively use when they are at the shelter but they don't have to have a drug test or sobriety test prior to entering."

A concern from the public is such a shelter only enables people, Morgado said. It's actually been proven they are effective in turning people's lives around after time.

"We need to understand these people are ill," she said. "Whether it's addiction or mental illness, it's like you or I having cancer. We need to give them a door."

Search for solutions

Haffner is hopeful that now that a sit-lie ordinance has passed, the attention of the public, which has been so vocal about homelessness in the community, can maybe turn toward service-based solutions.

The 10-year Strategy to End Homelessness has recognized alternative shelters as a gap and goal for the entire county. Its members are preparing a draft plan they hope to release to the public in March.

The Chico Housing Action Team also has been working on ideas, including a managed camp, and supported an impromptu emergency shelter last month when temperatures plummeted to around 20 degrees.

The Chico Peace & Justice Center opened its doors to anyone who needed refuge from the cold overnight.

"It was kind of an adventure," said Dan Everhart, president of the center's board of directors.

Guests were polite, despite the fact they were crowded together, and grateful. They averaged about 25 people a night, though some nights they had more than 30.

They were people with pets, substance abuse or severe mental illness. Everhart has no doubts those same people would take advantage of an alternative shelter if one existed, especially those aging or in poor health.

In some ways he sees the brief success as evidence of potential for an alternative shelter in Chico.

"All shelters start out being low-barrier because that's the idea," he said. "You want to get people in a safer place to be and they all wind up being the Torres Shelter. To make a space that's safe enough and stable enough, you drift toward that same model."

But alternative shelters are necessary, too, Everhart said.

In his mind, the natural progression is to perhaps start with an emergency cold shelter, then a seasonal low-barrier shelter and then a year-round low-barrier shelter. With enough collaboration, he thinks there is enough support from service providers to make it happen.

"It might not be as difficult as some people think, but it's still not going to be all that easy," he said.